| Businessweek | - |
The
European Union said it'll work “swiftly” to hit Russian industries with
sanctions as support grows for the package of trade restrictions
outlined this week.
Bloomberg News
EU Vows Russia Action as Merkel Said to See Sanctions Next Week
The European Union said it’ll work
“swiftly” to hit Russian industries with sanctions as support
grows for the package of trade restrictions outlined this week.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing her colleagues
to sign off on the measures by the end of next week and is
prepared to accept curbs on her country’s technology exports to
win support, according to two German government officials, who
asked not to be named because the discussions are private. “We are getting to the point when sanctions will be painful and double-edged, but if we don’t introduce them the situation could get even worse,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told TVN24 late yesterday.
The European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s regulatory arm, will draw up detailed proposals for broader sanctions against Russia after getting the go-ahead from EU diplomats at a meeting that concluded today, commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters. Pressure for action has surged since a Malaysian Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine last week.
EU governments have already agreed to go beyond sanctions that so far have been limited to travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and companies deemed responsible for the unrest in Ukraine. The next wave of restrictions may stop state-owned banks from financing themselves in Europe and prevent Russian companies buying high-tech equipment they need to develop the nation’s energy resources, according to a confidential document obtained yesterday by Bloomberg News.
U.K. Support
With the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama urging Europe to be bolder in its response to Russian encroachment in Ukraine, western EU nations swung behind calls by their eastern counterparts to target Russia’s economy with sanctions.The set of broader EU sanctions being drawn up by the commission is “a package we pressed for,” Jean-Christophe Gray, spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, said by phone today. “We want to see final agreement on it in the next few days.”
Sentiment in Germany, which accounts for 30 percent of the bloc’s exports to Russia, is also swinging behind broader sanctions with an industry lobby representing companies with business in Russia also giving its endorsement.
“We would support it 100 percent” if the EU imposes tougher sanctions, Eckhard Cordes, head of the BDI industry federation’s committee for eastern Europe, said in comments reported by Handelsblatt newspaper today and confirmed by a spokesman. “If a price has to be paid, we will pay it.”
Russian Economy
The EU and U.S. are betting that President Vladimir Putin will be forced into a U-turn over Ukraine by undermining a Russian economy that is already weakening.“Russia’s economy wasn’t in good shape before this started and, with the sanctions already in place, it’s taken a serious hit,” Joerg Forbrig, senior program officer for central and eastern Europe at the Berlin bureau of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said by phone today. “Russia can’t shake this off very easily.”
As part of its gradual tightening of the squeeze on Putin, the EU is due later today to publish the names of additional people and entities being put on its blacklist. Those measures may focus on senior officials from the Russian security services, according to a draft list seen by Bloomberg News.
In addition, the bloc may decide on July 28 to add what European officials have called Putin “cronies” to the list -- a step that would broaden the categories of individuals covered. The following day, EU diplomats will resume talks on the planned economic sanctions.
“The commission will swiftly table the necessary legislative proposals,” it said in a statement today.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net; Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net Tony Czuczka
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